- 11months
in America
-
- I’ve been learning English
since I was a JHS student. I received the typical Japanese English
education until I graduated from HS. What I did in my HS was just reading
and writing. Those made me feel bored and dislike English.
- I
was born in a traditional town where conservative people live. So,
speaking English was out of the question in my town. I couldn’t find
any foreigner around my neighborhood, so I didn’t feel that English
was important. I also had no idea what a real foreigner was like. The
truth is that I wasn’t interested in any other countries but mine. I
had such a small view of the world.
- I
guess you are wondering why I’m here at Dokkyo to learn English and
Spanish. I also can’t believe I’m writing what I’ve done so far in
English right now. Actually, I had a big turning point when I was a HS
student and I changed completely. I’d played basketball for eleven
years. I wanted to be a gymnastic teacher when I was a high school
student. But, unfortunately I got injured before the practical
examination of the university I wanted to go to. I was devastated. I
couldn’t come up with anything else I wanted to be but a gymnastic
teacher. At that time, my English teacher helped me out. He knew that I
was very active and an outgoing girl. I do love meeting people and
talking with them. He said to me “Do you want to know what the world
is like? I think you have a sense of English. I know you hate English,
but if you spoke English, you could make friends from all over the
world. Isn’t it great?” I doubted his words at first, but they stuck
with my head all the time. Finally, he persuaded me to do English.
- Luckily
I could enter this university. But as you can imagine, the start was
terrible. Many difficulties confronted me one after another. I couldn’t
look at native English speakers’ in the eyes. I shrunk from them.
What’s more, many of my classmates already had experiences outside of
Japan. They could speak English and knew about foreign cultures. It was
really tough for me, but I believed it would worth being with them.
Whenever I was almost cracking up, I said to myself “Come hell or high
water, stick with it! Go for it, Misaki!!”
- Gradually,
I improved. First, I could start to look at native speakers’ eyes.
Next, I could smile back to them. Next, I tried to say “Hi” to them
and finally I started to speak to them. It was like a game. Even though
I cleared the first hurdle, the next one was waiting for me. Now I can
say those were really meaningful times in my life.
- When
I was a sophomore, I had another turning point in learning English. I
took a year off after finishing my second year and I went to America. My
purpose wasn’t studying English. It was to meet as many people as I
could. That is my biggest purpose in my life because I believe that
meeting people makes my life richer, meaningful and colorful. While I
was in America, I participated in lots of volunteer programs and
internships, over 50 in total! Those were amazing. I can’t express
what I’d done there with one word, but I’m sure my experiences are
quite different from others. I thought I could study grammar or reading
in Japan, but I couldn’t learn how to speak real English and listen to
them. Therefore, I always stayed with volunteer members. Because of
that, I could improve my speaking and listening skills greatly. School
is not always the best place to learn
- I
met many wonderful people from all over the world. I felt the essence of
human beings such as love, smile, kindness, and anger were universal. I
faced diversity and I realized no one could define what “standard”
means. Each person is different. We cannot compare one person with
another because they are not the same. People I met in America made me
feel that it’s okay to be the way I am. To me, learning English is not
only about learning language, its about knowing who you are in the
world. You don’t need to try to be perfect when you speak English.
Trying to tell people what you feel from your heart is the beginning of
communication. I’m not afraid of making mistakes anymore because I
accept I’m a human being.
- I
saw the things I wanted and I saw people with jobs get what they want,
and that’s what I want, too. I don’t care if the job which I want to
get requires using English or not, but I’ll be always close to English
to communicate with my friends who said to me “We like you just the
way you are.”
